Cooling body

ABSTRACT

A substantially cuboidal cooling body includes a first cooling contact surface incorporated in a first outer side surface of a first wall of the cuboid and a second cooling contact surface incorporated in a second outer side surface of a second wall of the cuboid, wherein the second wall is arranged perpendicularly to the first wall such that a first edge is formed, a third wall is arranged perpendicularly to the second wall such that a second edge is formed, a fourth wall is arranged perpendicularly to the third wall such that a third edge is formed, and the first wall is arranged perpendicularly to the fourth wall such that a fourth edge is formed, where the four walls are arranged such that an internal space having a medium inlet opening and a medium outlet opening forms a flow channel for a cooling medium.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a substantially cuboidal cooling body, where a first cooling contact surface incorporated in a first outer side surface of a first wall of the cuboid and a second cooling contact surface incorporated in a second outer side surface of a second wall of the cuboid are present.

2. Description of the Related Art

Due to the miniaturization of electronic components, a greater packing density/functional density of the electronic components/parts is increasingly provided on a flat subassembly, such as a populated printed circuit board. Providing electronic components in this manner leads to an increase in power loss, particularly within microprocessors, and more particular in multicore microprocessors. While the performance of microprocessors is steadily increasing, the associated heat loss is also increasing.

In particular, in electronic components that are used in industrial automation engineering, high requirements are also set for cooling an electronic component, such as on the flat subassembly of a stored program control. As the stored program control is generally used in an industrial context, in which a raised ambient temperature already prevails, it has become even more difficult to dissipate the heat loss.

The computing power of an automation device leads to power loss. The greater the computing power, the greater the power loss (i.e., the creation of heat). As the processors that are used are becoming increasingly powerful, the power loss increases.

European publication EP 2 736 312 A1 discloses an automation device with a cooling body. In order to increase the power density of the disclosed automation device, this publication teaches that a cuboidal cooling body with a first cooling contact surface incorporated in a side surface of the cuboid on a first printed circuit board and with a second cooling contact surface incorporated in a second side surface of the cooling body is positioned on a second printed circuit board to dissipate the power loss.

This conventional cooling body has the drawback that it is no longer able to sufficiently dissipate the power loss generated, particularly when multicore microprocessors are used, and the conventional prior art automation device comprising such a conventional cooling body would overheat.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore and object of the present invention to provide a cooling body in which the cooling behavior is improved and/or the heat loss produced may be dissipated more effectively.

This and other objects and advantages are achieved in accordance with the invention by providing a substantially cuboidal cooling body, where a first cooling contact surface incorporated in a first outer side surface of a first wall of the cuboid and a second cooling contact surface incorporated in a second outer side surface of a second wall of the cuboid are present, where the second wall is arranged perpendicularly to the first wall and forms a first edge, a third wall is arranged perpendicularly to the second wall and forms a second edge, a fourth wall is arranged perpendicularly to the third wall and forms a third edge, and the first wall is arranged perpendicularly to the fourth wall and forms a fourth edge is formed, where the four walls are arranged such that an internal space having a medium inlet opening and a medium outlet opening forms a flow channel for a cooling medium. As the walls form a delimited internal space, for example, ambient air as cooling medium is able to flow more effectively and rapidly through the cooling body, and thus more effectively dissipate the heat loss absorbed by the cooling body.

In an embodiment, cooling plates are arranged in the internal space.

In a further embodiment, the thermal behavior is even further optimized, where the internal space has a heat conducting wall that is arranged perpendicularly to the first inner side surface of the first wall and connects the first wall to the third wall, and where the heat conducting wall is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface. The heat conducting wall incorporated in the internal space only insignificantly influences the flow behavior through the internal space, but nevertheless ensures a heat flow that flows into the first wall may be distributed more effectively and, in particular, may be conducted to the opposing third wall, whereby the heat flow may be distributed more effectively over the entire cuboid surface.

It is also advantageous if an approximately rectangular peripheral path forms a heat conducting frame via the four walls connected together. Thus, the first wall with the first cooling contact surface could be regarded as a main cooling surface, for example, for a multicore processor, and the second wall with the second cooling contact surface could be regarded as an additional cooling surface for any other electronic components. As the heat conducting wall is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface, perpendicularly to the main cooling surface, the greatest heat flow is conducted from the main cooling surface, in particular from the multicore microprocessor, to the opposing third wall. The wall thicknesses are designed to be substantially thicker in comparison with the plate thicknesses.

So that the cooling body operates optimally, a cooling body temperature should be distributed as uniformly as possible over the cooling body volume and at a temperature which is as high as possible. In order to achieve the object of a uniformly high cooling temperature, a solid outer heat conducting frame is provided. This heat conducting frame serves to produce a high uniform temperature distribution inside the cooling body volume, irrespective of the potentially non-uniform geometric position of the components to be cooled. The cooling plates are thus arranged between two opposing frame sides. For reasons of cost with regard to the manufacture, the “frame cooling body” thus formed is advantageously produced as a component in an extrusion method. Thus the cooling body in accordance with the disclosed embodiments of the invention is configured as a continuously cast profile in one piece or a one-piece continuously cast profile.

In principle, with regard to the geometry of its frame cooling body, it might also be possible to produce the disclosed cooling body from a plurality of parts and to connect this plurality of parts via a further method (for example soldering or welding). In principle, this is possible but it would have a significant negative impact on the cost-effectiveness of the production method.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings show an exemplary embodiment, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a three-dimensional view of a cooling body in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the cooling body shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a further sectional view of the cooling body shown in FIG. 1, in order to illustrate a peripheral path of a heat conducting frame; and

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of the cooling plates of the cooling body in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

A cooling body 1 which has been improved in its heat dissipation behavior relative to a conventional cooling body is shown in FIG. 1. The cooling body 1 is substantially cuboidal and thus has a first wall 11, a second wall 12, a third wall 13 and a fourth wall 14. A first cooling contact surface 2 is incorporated in a first outer side surface 21 of the first wall 11 of the cuboid and a second cooling contact surface 3 is incorporated in a second outer side surface of the second wall 2 of the cuboid. The walls 11, 12, 13, 14 are arranged such that an internal space 30 with a medium inlet opening 15 and a medium outlet opening 16 forms a flow channel 37 for a cooling medium.

Accordingly, the second wall 12 is located perpendicular to the first wall 11, whereby a first edge K1 is formed. The third wall 13 is located perpendicular to the second wall 12, whereby a second edge K2 is formed. The fourth wall 14 is located perpendicular to the third wall 13, whereby a third edge K3 is formed. In addition, the first wall 11 is accordingly located perpendicular to the fourth wall 14, whereby a fourth edge K4 is formed.

An approximately rectangular peripheral path 40 (see FIG. 3) of the four walls connected together 11, 12, 13, 14, which forms a peripheral heat conducting frame 41, is achieved by this arrangement of the walls 11, 12, 13, 14. Moreover, a first cooling plate 31, a second cooling plate 32, a third cooling plate 33, a fourth cooling plate 34, a fifth cooling plate 35 and a sixth cooling plate 36 are arranged in the internal space 30. A heat conducting wall 17 is arranged between the third cooling plate 33 and the fourth cooling plate 34, where the heat conducting wall is located perpendicular to the first inner side surface 21 a of the first wall 11 and connects the first wall 11 to the third wall 13, and where the heat conducting wall 17 is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface 2. A first electronic component arranged in the first cooling contact surface 2, in particular a multicore microprocessor, discharges a first heat flow {dot over (Q)}1 into the first wall 11. A second electronic component arranged in the second cooling contact surface 3 would discharge a second heat flow {dot over (Q)}2 into the second wall 12. So that, in particular, the first heat flow {dot over (Q)}1 may be rapidly dissipated and effectively distributed within the entire cooling body 1, the internal wall 17 is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface 2.

To illustrate the dissipation of the first heat flow {dot over (Q)}1, the cooling body 1 is illustrated in a sectional view in FIG. 2. The first heat flow {dot over (Q)}1 in the first wall 11 is divided into a first partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}11, a second partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}12 and a third partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}13. The first partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}11 flows through the first wall 11 in the direction of the fourth edge K4, the second partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}12 flows through the first wall 11 in the direction of the first edge K1 and the third partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}13 flows through the heat conducting wall 17 in the direction of the third wall 13, where it is then re-divided in the third wall 13 into a further partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}′ in the direction of the second edge K2 and into a further partial heat flow {dot over (Q)}″ in the direction of the third edge K3. With this arrangement of the walls 11, 12, 13, 14 and, in particular, the configuration of the walls 11, 12, 13, 14 as a heat conducting frame 41 (see FIG. 3), a uniform cooling body temperature is achieved in the sense of improved cooling.

An illustration of the configuration of the walls 11, 12, 13, 14 with an approximately rectangular peripheral path 40, which thus form a solid heat conducting frame 41, is shown in FIG. 3. In this sectional view, a fifth edge K5, a sixth edge K6, a seventh edge K7 and an eighth edge K8 substantially depict the heat conducting frame 41.

With respect to FIG. 4, the heat conducting frame 41 is also shown in a further view, i.e., in a plan view of the cooling body 1. The heat conducting frame 41 is substantially configured by the first wall 11, the second wall 11, the third wall 13 and the fourth wall 14. In order to further optimize the dissipation of the heat flows {dot over (Q)}a solid heat conducting wall 17 is arranged between the first wall 11 and the third wall 13.

In order to keep the production of such a cooling body 1 cost-effective, the cooling body 1 is configured as a continuously cast profile in one piece or a one-piece continuously cast profile. Cooling body profiles produced in a continuous casting method, which are made of aluminum, for example, and which may be cut to length as required, are mass-produced items which may be produced inexpensively.

Thus, while there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A substantially cuboidal cooling body, comprising: a first cooling contact surface incorporated in a first outer side surface of a first wall of the substantially cuboidal cooling body; a second cooling contact surface incorporated in a second outer side surface of a second wall of the substantially cuboidal cooling body, the second wall being arranged perpendicularly to the first wall and forming a first edge; a third wall arranged perpendicularly to the second wall and forming a second edge; and a fourth wall arranged perpendicularly to the third wall and forming a third edge, the first wall being arranged perpendicular to the fourth wall to form a fourth edge; wherein the first, second, third and fourth walls are arranged such that an internal space having a medium inlet opening and a medium outlet opening forms a flow channel for a cooling medium.
 2. The substantially cuboidal cooling body as claimed in claim 1, wherein cooling plates are arranged in the internal space.
 3. The substantially cuboidal cooling body as claimed in claim 1, wherein the internal space includes a heat conducting wall which is arranged perpendicularly to a first inner side surface of the first wall and connects the first wall to the third wall; and wherein the heat conducting wall is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface.
 4. The substantially cuboidal cooling body as claimed in claim 2, wherein the internal space includes a heat conducting wall which is arranged perpendicularly to a first inner side surface of the first wall and connects the first wall to the third wall; and wherein the heat conducting wall is arranged substantially centrally relative to the first cooling contact surface.
 5. The substantially cuboidal cooling body as claimed in claim 1, wherein an approximately rectangular peripheral path of the first, second, third and fourth walls connected together forms a heat conducting frame.
 6. The substantially cuboidal cooling body as claimed in claim 1, wherein the substantially cuboidal cooling body is configured as a one-piece continuously cast profile. 